The Big Travel Podcast

Jun 14 2024 162 ep. 397
The Big Travel Podcast artwork

The Big Travel Podcast: Exploring Life-Stories Through Travel. Taking you on a journey of discovery, with a wonderfully diverse selection of characters, The Big Travel Podcast explores life-stories in travel; from childhoods with little money but a spirit for exploration to fabulous tales of exotic climes and incredible adventures. Celebrities, authors, sports people, politicians, famous faces from TV, radio, music, stage and screen, SAS soldiers, adventurers and ordinary people taking extraordinary journeys tell their story of life through travel, and through this, The Big Travel Podcast finds out what it is about travel that inspires us, that makes us laugh, love, cry and sometimes cringe yet above all keep travelling. The Big Travel Podcast is hosted by Lisa Francesca Nand, travel journalist, presenter, writer and filmmaker.

  Society & Culture
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164. In Madrid with Simon Hunter; Madrid Newsrooms, Old Sherry Bars and Benidorm Sun Lounger Wars

Jun 14 2024 48 mins  
Picture the scene... Lisa and Simon Hunter (Madrid based journalist) are in the centre of Madrid at the fabulous Ocean Drive Hotel with a balcony over- looking over the Opera square having a chat about politics, celebs, nightclubs, tapas and more before heading up to the rooftop pool for a Vermouth...On this episode we talk..the short trip that turned into a lifetime love of Madrid

163. Barbara Buczek; From Poland to Kentucky, Saudi Cruising to Everest Base Camp and The Emotional Tug of Those White Cliffs of Dover

Apr 21 2024 53 mins  
Barbara Buczek spent ten years in the management team at the Port of Dover but over two years ago moved continents to establish Saudi’s new cruise scene with Cruise Saudi. Born in Poland she felt that travelling at an early age to Kentucky to attend a US high school gave her the travel bug. On this episode we talk about the special relationship with the UK have with Dover, the em

162. Ash Bhardwaj; Walking The Nile, Slipping Down the Himalayas & Exploring Why We Travel

Apr 05 2024 74 mins  
Ash Bhardwaj travel-writer, film-maker & author of the new book Why We Travel is today’s wonderful guest – discussing… the rugby trip to New Zealand that changed his life, walking the Nile with his friend Levison Wood, getting dangerously lost Walking the Himalayas, the magical Sufi festival in the Sudanese desert, the pilgrimage with his father’s ashes to the Ganges, an 85

161. Faisal Sheraiff; Saudi-Influencer on Saudi’s Changes, the Old Markets of Riyadh, Dream-Scapes in Alula

Mar 21 2024 32 mins  
Faisal Sheraiff, influencer and entrepreneur, lives in Saudi Arabia with his fashion designer wife and two children. He was born in the US to a diplomat father and an anthropologist mother and has travelled to 50 countries. We discuss Saudi’s changes and international tourism, living in Jeddah by the sea, beach days, coffee shops, large family gatherings, Cristiano Ronaldo, F1, t

160. Hassan Saeed; Maldivian Resorts, Island Culture and the Importance of Loving Your Community

Mar 04 2024 45 mins  
We’re back for our new season and starting with an extra special episode recorded in the beautiful Maldivian resort of Dhigali where our presenter Lisa recently spent an idyllic week. Who better to give us a real look at life in the Maldives than resort manager Hassan Saeed who, having dropped out of school age 14 and one of 11 siblings, very quickly had to start start work. We t

159. NEW SEASON IMMINENT!

Feb 19 2024 4 mins  
We are happy to announce the imminent arrival of our new season of episodes and as usual we have a few wonderful surprises for you – some on location episiodes from destinations as varied as Copenhagen to the Maldives – some new partners for sponsorship and also a very exciting annoucment as to what Lisa is up to with some travel plans that can also involve you! Yes you. Watch

158. The Big Travel Podcast Christmas Special 2023!

Dec 18 2023 20 mins  
Hello and welcome to The Big Travel Podcast Christmas Special 2023 special…featuring the Casual Birder Podcast’s Suzy Buttress on celebrating the winter solstice in Antartica, Countdown’s Rachel Riley and her husband’s post-Strictly wind down in the blue lagoon in Iceland, musician and writer Nitin Sawhney having a Hallmark picture perfect Christmas in the US, actor Warwick

157. Nitin Sawhney CBE; Racism in Kent, India on Horseback, Mandela at Home

Oct 22 2023 63 mins  
Nitin Sawhney’s Kent childhood included regular attacks by racists, but he threw himself into music, joining school friend James Taylor’s band. Flying to India via Kabul aged 8 he found himself a child mascot riding horseback through the streets, he felt liberated by Liverpool at university, he studied accountancy but ending up creating a hit comedy show with Sanjeev Bhaskar, h

156. Motoring Journalist Ben Oliver; Belfast Troubles, Braving An Open Top Bentley To The Arctic Circle, Manoeuvring A Mini Up the Himalayas in Monsoon

Jul 01 2023 48 mins  
Motoring journalist Ben Oliver was born amid the troubles in Belfast with the family moving to ‘slightly dull Reading’ when he was 6. On this episode we talk about his life-changing teen travels to Israel, Syria, Gaza & Kurdistan, the glory 90s and noughties days of magazine journalism, how LA porn sets are like a clinical operating room, driving an open-top Bentley up ‘the b

155. Warwick Davis; Cookies with Carrie Fisher in California, Varanasi with Karl Pilkington, The Seven Dwarfs of Auschwitz and The World’s Best Pencil Museum

Jun 14 2023 34 mins  
Actor Warwick Davis' first trip abroad was to California at the age of 11 to star in Star Wars, a big jump from his day to day childhood in Surrey. On this episode we talk…Carrie Fisher feeding him cookies in the Redwood forest, sweltering in a rubber head-mask in the deserts of Tunisia, being a Goblin with David Bowie, causing mayhem in India on An Idiot Abroad with Karl Pilking